Road Warrior: This winter's Black Hole potholes awards

Potholes on Route 4 west near Route 17 and the parkway. The highway was picked as the region’s worst.

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When it comes to Olympic-style slalom rides, few roadways measure up to Route 4, the chief recipient of the Road Warrior’s 11th annual Black Hole awards this year.

Based partly on reader accounts and nearly 300 miles of first-hand Road Warrior observations, the pothole-ridden highway, which crosses Route 17 and the Garden State Parkway, was rated worst overall.

“It’s a disaster,” agreed Paramus Mayor Richard LaBarbiera, whose borough is where the old highway is a main conduit for shoppers who patronize the giant malls.

No road surface is immune to the freeze-thaw cycles that highways have experienced this winter, of course. By its own count, the state Department of Transportation filled 25,000 potholes last month alone, twice the number from January 2013. And a DOT spokesman noted that its crews were busy this week patching 10 North Jersey highways including 4, 287, 280, 3, 17, 21, 23, 46, 1&9 and the Pulaski Skyway.

In several trial runs along Route 4, the landmark stretch — which passes two landmark highways and a few landmark shopping centers on the approach to the big landmark bridge — did not seem to have much priority.

The complicated entrance and exit ramps at the parkway and Route 17, for example, often slowed traffic to a crawl and cars were seen bobbing up and down as they approached highway queues. Near-misses were common as drivers left their lanes to avoid potholes.

“I was weaving and dodging,” New Milford’s Lauren Maehrlein said of a recent trip to Fort Lee.

Actually, few roads passed muster this year, but here are some other locations — most of them landmarks — that bear special mention.

Neglected stepchild

Despite recent patching, the Palisades Interstate Parkway remains much more tattered than its smoother surface on the Rockland County, N.Y., extension of the highway. The New Jersey Legislature, which is responsible for funding the Palisades Interstate Park Commission roadway, has traditionally been less generous in funding its part of the PIP than lawmakers in the Empire State.

Worst local crossing

There were many rocky crossings, but we couldn’t find one with more rubble in it than Bruce Reynolds Boulevard at Center Avenue in Fort Lee. Which government entity is required to repair a local thoroughfare in the shadow of the GWB? Mayor Mark Sokolich said the primary responsibility lay with the Port Authority. “But we’ll fix it,” he said. “Thursday at the latest.”

Unloved twin

There are two streets named Railway Avenue in Paterson, the Passaic County seat. Silky smooth East Railway runs past the old farmers’ market. Railroad tracks separate it from six blocks of West Railway, where trucks from factories over several winters have turned the road into something worse than a tank trail. It’s not likely to improve anytime soon. “I’ve talked to the property owners down there, and there’s a big drainage problem that we inherited,” said Mayor Jeffery Jones. At roughly $300,000 per city block for repaving, Paterson simply doesn’t have the money or manpower to fix it, he added. “We have to prioritize our work,” he said.

Low-priority crossing

You would think that the Port Authority’s first pothole priority would be the busiest bridge in the world. But Paula Rogovin was surprised to find a few holes on the middle lane of the Manhattan-bound lower level of the George Washington Bridge. Considering that the agency’s employees “get paid a lot and have perks,” said the Teaneck motorist, “why should there still be big potholes there?”

Maybe in spring

Carlstadt’s Starke Road, situated in an otherwise modern industrial village, has contained some of Bergen County’s biggest and deepest potholes for several years. Despite calls to Borough Hall, business owners say they have been unable to get needed repairs for the long, looping road. “I’ll put it high on my list,” said Bruce Young, the borough’s new public works director. By spring, Young said he hopes to have sufficient, permanent “hot patch” to bring Starke up to standard, but business owners remain skeptical.

Worst driveway

Driveways normally don’t make this list — unless they’re owned by a government agency. Unlike Paterson, the feds should have enough cash to fix the 15-foot entrance to the Wyckoff Post Office, which Sue Winter calls an “unlimited potpourri of potholes, obstacles and ice ridges that would challenge even the hardiest Hummer.” The parking lot isn’t much better, but nor is Greenwood Avenue, the borough street leading to the post office.

Late bloomer

For a decade, this column has called Stanley Street in East Rutherford the most pothole-ridden short street in North Jersey, but not any longer.

Now that Stanley marks the entrance to the new municipal complex, its drainage issues have been fixed — with federal money — and the little road is now one of the region’s smoothest short streets.